Juelz Santana Hooks Up With German Record Label; Label Fights Against Government Ban
By Chris Richburg
Date: 6/24/2006 2:40 pm
Dipset rapper Juelz Santana is featured on a new German rap single, titled "Gangzta Mucke" ("Gangsta Music"), a track from the album Trendsetter by rapper Fler.
Trendsetter is a CD/DVD released by Aggro Berlin, one of Germany’s top rap labels. which has distribution by US-based distribution company, Caroline.
The project, which features a DVD of 20 videos titled "Aggro Videos," comes amid efforts to ban rap overseas.
Aggro Berlin has become a target of the ban the German government, as six of its albums have been currently "flagged" due to what is deemed in Germany as "explicit language" addressing sex, drugs, crime and violence.
The lyrical content of the music has prompted the federal German agency known as "Bundesprüfstelle" to "index" Aggro Berlin’s six albums on its official list.
"Bundesprüfstelle" is responsible for examining media works that is allegedly harmful to young people and entering these works onto an official list.
The process is known as Indizierung (indexing) in German
Under German law, once an item makes the list, artwork of any kind can then be banned at any time.
Despite the concerns, Aggro Berlin says it supports the music’s expression because the artists are intimately familiar with codes, violence and stories of the streets.
"I grew up in a bad part of Berlin which I would describe as a typical German ghetto," German recording artist Fler told AllHipHop.com. "The neighborhood was really bad and most of my childhood I spent hanging out with my homies in the streets instead of going to school. I saw a lot of crazy things happening in the streets like thefts, murders, rape, etc. and I also did a lot of crazy things myself.
"The government has forgotten about us long time ago, though most of the immigrants in our hood were invited in the 70s to live and work here," Fler continued, citing a life of crime as the end result of neglect from school teachers and others looking down on lower class citizens.
"Thus, much like that of the birth of Hip-Hop in the United States, rap music still stands for a way to speak out not only against oppression but also in many cases to demonstrate to the mainstream consistently the types of citizens it has created when it elects to marginalize people according to race and class. Whether Germany or the United States, there will always be those who are considered "outside" and then even limited in their expression of that exclusion.
Trendsetter by Fler will hit stores in October and a variety of digital retail outlets.
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www.allhiphop.com
